Small fleets, as well as one-truck independent owner-operators, have just a little over two months to run their first required annual query under the CDL Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse rule that took effect this year. If they don’t do so by the Jan. 5 deadline, it could mean an easily flagged violation in an inspection audit or compliance review, possibly resulting in a fine of up to $2,500 for non-compliance.
For leased owner-operators running under a carrier’s operating authority, there’s no need to do anything within the clearinghouse except to grant their carrier permission to run their CDL number in the clearinghouse for the required annual check.
With hundreds of thousands of fleets having failed to even open a clearinghouse account, the technical system will once again likely be tested by a flood of users hitting the platform for the first time. A surge of first-time users caused the system to crash in January 2020, just after the regulations took effect. It remained unstable for weeks, causing hurdles for users.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has since updated the platform, but those fixes “will get their first true test by January [2021],” said Lucas Kibby, marketing director at Compliance Navigation Specialists.
Motor carriers of all sizes are required to run a limited clearinghouse query on all of their drivers at least once every 12 months — and that includes independent owner-operators doing a self-check. The reg doesn’t go by calendar year, but rather a rolling 12-month period from the previous clearinghouse check.
As of the end of September, some 145,000 employer accounts had been created in the clearinghouse, according to a monthly FMCSA report. That’s well shy of the roughly half-million carriers registered with operating authority that, presumably, will need to run a required annual query by Jan. 5.
“It’s been chronically under-used,” said Andrew Easler, who founded and runs DrugTestingCourses.com, which helps fleets and owner-operators comply with DOT drug regs.
